


next to you, the sky is more blue (in malibu)

by softinnocence



Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cute Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Past Relationship(s), Tried to be funny, ben gross needs the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26192305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softinnocence/pseuds/softinnocence
Summary: "they don’t talk about malibu, it’s something devi doesn’t want to know about. because feelings will resurface, and she cannot go through that again.or devi & ben become princeton roommates and some feelings come to sense.
Relationships: Ben Gross & Devi Vishwakumar, Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	next to you, the sky is more blue (in malibu)

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! you may be wondering what happened and i changed this story to be a one-shot cause i'm not great at doing  
> multi chapters. oops. anyway, this is brought to you because i'm going back to work on wednesday, and in wanted to do this before i become less active!
> 
> you're amazing! enjoy!
> 
> love, amy mae! <3

**next to you, the sky is more blue (in malibu)**

“David!” Ben Gross’s voice filled the student accommodation halls and as Devi turned around, he was waving at her over other student’s heads as they tried to fit their belongings into the Princeton Dorm doors. Most of the students were with their parents fighting with them, not knowing how much they would miss them when they're gone. It made the hallway loud and unnecessarily claustrophobic.

  
Devi sighed loudly. It seemed the universe hated Devi Vishwakumar. She waved back, an unimpressed expression on her face as she held her packet cookies from the shop across the road. She and Ben would be sharing a dorm this year, against her will. Luckily, their doom room was two separate rooms but had a shared bathroom and kitchen. Ben’s parents had got him one of the rare rooms like that, called a studio. Devi had had trouble all year finding somewhere to stay and while asking around, Ben had been the only one agreeing to let her stay, with hardly any rent. It seemed as if he had been waiting for her to ask, jumping in a conversation with her friends about looking for a place.

  
It seemed out of the blue, he had wanted to go to Yale his entire life, but he claimed they didn’t have a good enough track record for him. Devi gave him a dirty look but when he’d turned, she wanted him to keep talking.

  
_(they don’t talk about malibu, it’s something Devi doesn’t want to know about. Because feelings will resurface, and she cannot go through that again.)_

  
As she climbed over the many people who was unpacking, she finally made it to their dorm room. It was cosy, a small living room (painted a light grey and some wood effect wallpaper) with a kitchen to the next room (what she need to learn something this year is how to cook), and bedrooms facing opposite to each other so if the doors were open, you can see everything. (That worried her most, being vulnerable to her enemy, who isn’t really her enemy anymore. It’s complicated.)

Devi had arrived earlier than other students and said a hard goodbye to her mother, even know she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and unpacked some of her belongings. As she walked through the door, she saw some more of her boxes on the living room floor and some of Ben’s placed around also. She was ready for this year to be up already. 

  
Ben greeted her with a smirk as he held the door open for her. “Morning David, I think we should lay some ground rules, right?”

  
Devi shrugged her shoulders and she jumped onto the sofa. It wasn’t as nice sitting on it, but Devi held her tongue and flicked her wrist to show her could go on. Ben smiled and carried on pacing as he spoke as if he wanted to make sure there would be no eye contact.

  
_(Devi was grateful. His eyes where her drug, no number of drugs she got afford her would make her feel the way those eyes did. But she didn’t like Ben Gross, oh no, those eyes were just something else.)_

  
“Okay, I’ll give you a key, but try to give me a warning if your going drinking, because I know what your like David.” Devi rolled her eyes and muttered something untellable under her breath. “I will be having girls round, so try not to get jealous, okay?”

  
Devi didn’t hold her tongue this time. “That’s if you can find someone who wants to sleep with you Gross and not for your money.”

  
He smirked, _(one that took Devi back to when the kiss had broken and he had laughed before throwing in that smirk that made her want to live in that moment forever, pulling him back for one of those heart-stopping kisses.)_

  
She looked him, rolling her eyes, pulling out one of the cookies, and biting it. He seemed to stop his train of thoughts but shook his head and carried on.

  
“Right Devi like you can do any better, anyway,” he cuts in as if he were expecting an argument on their first day living together and trying to keep the peace. Devi leaned back and took another bite of the cookie giving him an eye roll in response to his idea of winning. “As we are in the same class, we should at least be civil, so I want us to be friends.”

  
Devi choked on the cookie in her mouth before looking up at him to look for signs in his eyes for a sense of joke or a laugh to fill the studio room. Instead, he looked at her, his chin held high and waiting for an answer. 

  
_(can you be friends with your kind of crush when she was 15 till about, she had no idea when it ended, but it ended, the guy who called her an unfuckable nerd and who drove her crazy throughout high school? And could you be friends if you live with this guy and go to the same classes as him?)_

  
They had both applied for Undergraduate Law, Devi wanted to be a Human Rights Lawyer and Ben a Defence Lawyer. Devi had watched enough Brooklyn Nine-Nine to know that those lawyers where the worst and could help but hold a laugh as he told her.

  
“Okay, Benjamin, friends.” She held out her hand and he shook it firmly, and when it parted, her heart ached a little bit. I guess you can at least try, right?

** ________________________________________________ **

Devi woke on the morning of her first class earlier than a usual student would. At the 6am alarm, she brushed her hair and teeth, leaving the door open. Ben woke a little while later, smiling at her through the mirror as she styled her hair and remembering their pact, smiled back at him. He left to the kitchen, and Devi finished up in the bathroom, walking towards the kitchen where Ben was making coffee. He placed a mug in front of the kitchen island before grabbing a bowl from the cupboard, pouring in some coco pops, and grabbing the milk. Devi didn’t realize she was watching him until he spoke, trying to gain her attention. 

  
“Hey, are you okay? David?” The nickname David might have been a way to mock her in High School, but the way he said it this morning might have sounded like a pet name, like baby or honey.

  
_(It was different from the way things were yesterday. It's like she had woken up to a parallel universe or traveled back in time to when they where kids in the car kissing in_ mabliu _-)_

  
“Yeah, yes. Um, did you make me coffee?” Her eyes glanced to the island where her mug that Eleanor got her as a parting gift with a group photo of the three of them, Devi, El, and Fab, making silly faces, with a caption, “have fun at Princeton!!”

  
He nodded as he sat down. “Yep, I know how you have your coffee from when you lived with me, so while I was making one, I made you one, no big deal.”

  
“Thanks” Devi replied wrapping her hands around the warm mug wishing her arms where around his waist.

  
“That’s okay, its what friends do.” Ben smiled warmly at her, shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

  
_(If they where a couple, Devi would_ of _walked round to his side of the island, kissed him and said how much he loved her, but they aren’t so Devi takes the friends zone and nods backs, sipping it watching him through her eyelashes thinking about why these thoughts keep entering her head)_

Ben finished up his food, throwing the rest of his coffee back as Devi finished up her’s. She left the cup on the side, as he did the same, both escaping to their bedrooms to get ready for the day. She pulled on a sensible outfit; one she had chosen at 16 for her first day of Princeton when she had even more high hopes of going to her dream school. It was a smart sweater; with a pair of tie waist jeans she was surprised to still fit into. She pulled on some white trainers grabbing her bag and phone getting ready to leave by the front door.

  
“Did you want me to walk to class with you?” A voice behind her asked, and as she turned around, he was rubbing his neck with his weird ass satchel and jeans and some branded shirt. He had Nike trainers on and watched he look him down.

  
_(This would come a daily question that will become something that just starts to happen, because they both fall in line with each, learning to know each other as well as they did when they were just turned 16, and living together for that week.)_

  
“I mean we are in the same class, so why not, don’t want you to be lonely, you can hang around me and my many new friends.” She smiled at him over her shoulder and he smirked at her, rolling his eyes almost so far, they wouldn’t come back.

  
It was true though, Devi had made two new friends in her class, a boy called Max Wilkinson who was a jolly boy, and helped her mother and her park in the car park on an open day. After expressing their thanks and an exchange of thanks, Max asked what class Devi was in and finding they both wanted to be lawyers swapped number and got chatting and became remarkably close friends. Devi also spoke to his girlfriend Maya Mathews, and them finding they had loads in common, both being an only child, having a father that passed away and coming from a different country with her’s being England.

  
Devi and Maya lived close by as well, and met up for coffee, talking about college and their dreams of becoming Lawyers to help people in the world have better lives. Maya had also become awfully close Eleanor and Fabiola them all agreeing to stay in touch, meeting up in the summer after their first year with Eleanor leaving for Juilliard and Fabiola to NYU to study Engineering Production. There would be 100s of FaceTimes and phone calls, but Devi was already missing them with her whole heart. 

  
Ben and Devi left the studio, with Ben locking up behind him, and smiled at Devi making all those butterflies come up again and they walked side by side towards there class with Devi questioning the entire time if she had feelings for Ben Gross’s gross face and his gross eyes and his gross everything.

  
**____________________________________________________________**

  
Maya ran up to Devi hugging her waist while Devi took a while to respond, wrapping her arms around her’s giggling when Maya lifted her off the ground a little bit. They had arrived outside the classroom and Max and Maya had been waiting for them. Ben watched curiously and smiled when Maya looked at him. It wasn’t one he normally threw at her, but it was friendly enough for Maya to know who he was.

  
“Ah, you must be Ben Gross! Evie has told me so much about you!” Evie was Maya’s nickname for Devi, and she liked it a lotta more than David. Ben didn’t ask about Evie, but he shook Maya’s outstretched hand and flashed another one his smiles, one more on the teasing side.

  
“Has she now?” He asked Maya, “she’s kind of obsessed with me.” Maya laughed Max joining in, as he hugged Devi and Ben looked at the two of them with an untellable expression. One that might be classed as jealously. 

  
“I’m Max, Devi hasn’t told me much about you so your safe with me mate.” Ben watched Max carefully look over his toned body, glasses, and messy blonde hair, before smiling a less impressionable one and shaking his hand. Devi watched carefully sensing an unease with Ben until Maya grabbed Max’s hand and walked into the classroom. That seem to relax Ben as he looks at Devi and opened the door for her. She looked up at him as she passed him looking into his eyes, it was clear, he felt something that Devi thought she felt a long time ago. He was worried about another boy being a threat until he found out he had a girlfriend.

  
Devi sighed internally. This was going to be a long year.

**_______________________________________________________**

Devi couldn’t help but shake the feeling as she walked out of the hall that Ben didn’t get over Malibu. His ways towards her the last two years had suggested otherwise, but he had calmed his ways towards her since that sunny day. He had been more careful with her, as if he had seen her at her worse and didn’t want to relive those memoires. He had always been quick to fire back though to her suggestions and her finals speeches giving her the passion to do better, wanting to prove him wrong, making sure that she wouldn’t trip in with him around.

  
_(someone other than Devi would_ called _that trying to impress Ben or trying to make sure she was always perfect for him, but Devi is in the phase were she denies her feelings in every way possible, so she doesn’t get hurt, like with Paxton.)_

  
But as Maya pulled her into a small diner just off the Princeton Campus, leaving the boys alone outside the lecture hall doors where they met, making the two make an awkward attempt of conversation, she couldn’t shake her feeling that Ben was like Paxton.

  
Devi had always found Paxton Yoshida-Hall hot. Like if you put ice cream onto his chest, it would melt and evaporate, but his soul was something from the opposite side of the story. During their time as a couple, he was distance and would just use her to show off to his friends. “Devi helped me get an A,” “Devi is the best girlfriend ever”. But as soon as they get home, it was silence and difficult, just like losing her virginity.

  
If she could redo it, she would. Paxton didn’t wait for her, didn’t listen to her cries of pain as he thrusted into her, sighing into her ears as the tears as whimpering of pain coming from her mouth got louder every time he entered her a little more. He waited for a minute, literally 60 seconds because she was counting, not waiting for Devi to be ready, which she wasn’t. She cried out in pain the whole time and begged him to slow down or wait, but he was chasing his own relief, not looking out for Devi and her feeling in the process.

  
She left his house with tears in her eyes and broke up over call with him the same night. He was nice about it, but Devi couldn’t help but hate him. She had dreamed of that day for a long time and instead it was filled pain and anger. She had slept with many guys since then, but nobody had made her feel good.

  
Her eyes watered at the Diner table but wiped then quickly as Maya talked about her and Max sharing their studio apartment. It was a bit bigger than her and Ben’s but that was because Max’s parents have good connections around New Jersey, and for a good price got a nice place just on the outskirts of Princeton itself.

  
_(Devi would have these moments in a normal situation and just want to cry and forget about the past or just start again. She found it hard because even though Paxton was a good guy, he had become better now, even checking up on her before she left for college, she had a feeling that her feelings with Ben were so messed up because of Paxton.)_

  
Ben had always been Devi’s normal, when her Dad died she was so overcome by sadness and anger that everyone treated her with such a sense a fragility like she would break if the single thing touched her, but Ben didn’t. He pretended if nothing happened, teasing her about anything but her Dad, showing he was still like the rest, but wanted to give her normal, a sense of escape. Ben wasn’t scared of Devi.

  
“Hey, Devi?” Maya tapped her shoulder over the table. The place gave Devi Riverdale vibes as if she were with Betty in Pops about to talk about boys. Riverdale was Devi’s guilty pleasure and she wasn’t proud of it yes, but it gave her a daily excuse to be alone as nobody but Kalama wanted to watch it with her, but she was normally ahead of the show so Devi watched it by herself.

  
“Yeah, Max is cute, we all know that you love him Maya,” she laughed, pushing Maya back into her seat, but Maya wasn’t pleased.

  
“What’s going on Devi? Is this about Ben? Oh my, has he been being mean to you? You seemed good in the hall, but I promise you now-”

  
“No, this isn’t about Ben,” Devi sighed loudly in the empty Diner.

  
“Are you sure Devi, I mean you have only been living him one night and you are already on edge, are you sure?” 

  
“Maya! This isn’t about Ben! Its going okay you know, he made me coffee this morning, it was a great coffee, like wow, and he called me David this morning, but it sounded not bad, but good? How is it that childhood nickname sound so good? It’s like I can’t get enough of those blue eyes, I swear blue eyes are like the most common eyes in the world, but his have such high definition to them, like I’m watching them in HD. Ben is always there, he always have been,” Maya stirred her drink with her straw, smiling slightly as she continued her ramble. “he has been my rock, he’s been a pain in the ass, yes, fuck yes, but I like him. Shit I like Ben!”

  
Maya looked up at Devi as she has simply said that she was going to order a Burger like she already knew this was what she wanted. Devi threw her head back finally coming to terms with her feelings. It gave her the chills, as if she read a Riverdale Fanfiction that is actually good, like with real grammar and a storyline.

“I like Ben.” She whispered again, this time to Maya who was smiling to widely.

“Please, Devi.” She rolled her eyes, but with that smile still stuck to her pale skin. “All summer I had to hear about Ben. Ben Gross, this, Ben Gross, that. God its clear you have feelings for him. You clearly care for him. What happened with Paxton, is Paxton, not Ben. This is Ben. The one that let you live in home for a week, the one that drove you to Malibu, the one you kissed at Malibu, don’t you dare say you didn’t, because something happened there and it clearly fucked you up. Ben likes you and you like Ben so good ahead, tell him. It will make sense living together, at least right?”

Devi looked up at her best friend, Maya’s face was full of excitement and it looked as if she were about to push her out of the Diner herself.

“Okay, sure.”

** ________________________________________________ **

Her hand hovered over the door as if she were going knock, but she remembers this was her place as well. Devi breathes deeply, as she opens the door where she doesn’t see Ben in the hallway, but hears him the kitchen, pots banging around loudly over The Vamp’s music mixed with swearing. She had let him know she was on her way home through text and he had sent a bunch of emojis which gave Devi a sense of happiness she didn’t have when Paxton texted her.

  
_(texting Paxton felt more like a chore than a willing choice, she was doing it because it became a routine. They were always so dry, and she hated to stay up to text him because she felt like she had to.)_

  
“Ben?” Devi voice broke half-way calling his name, but he didn’t seem to care.

  
“Hey, David! Devi, in the kitchen!” He sounded so happy, as if this was an amazing day. It was his voice when he got 101% on a test, rare, but beautiful. This is what Devi wanted every day of her life.

As she made her way in the kitchen, a pizza laid on the table (almost made her wonder why she heard pans clashing in the hallway) with two drinks. Ben wanted to have dinner with her because he hadn’t had dinner with anyone when he was a kid.

  
“Hey.” This time his voice was softer as if he were trying to convince her to eat with him. Devi didn’t know she hadn’t eaten at the Diner, but he seemed to just know her. He washed up the tray that the pizza was on and started to sing softly to Missing You, and that’s when it hit Devi. She loved Ben.

  
Fuck, liking him, that was an understatement. Ben looked at her everyday as if she were the only thing worth looking at. He always checked on her, over text, call, he clapped louder than anyone when she gave her Valedictorian Speech, he was always there. From day one. Giving her a cookie when she dropped her on the playground, pushing Trent for making fun of her skin colour. She had never been so sure of soulmates, until today.

  
“I love you.” Before she could stop the words, they came out of her mouth, like they where going to this morning, but she hadn’t come to terms with those feelings until now. Now he was the only thing worth her time, her life.

  
“Huh? Wait what?” Ben turned around to look at her, she must look crazy, as she dropped her bag, walking around the island, to look into those blue eyes. He looked at her as if she weren’t real like this wasn’t real. She was less than a few inches away from him, looking up into those eyes as she spoke, because she couldn’t stop herself.

  
“I suck, fuck, I am the biggest mess in the world. But what happened in Malibu,” Ben looked at her in shock and confusion, they never talk about Malibu, as if was a dead body everyone doesn’t know about, “I was scared, in thought that if you knew what I really was then you wouldn’t want me, so I went to Paxton, and that was the worst, fuck, shit, I messed up, I get if you don’t feel the same-”

  
Ben threw the tray on the side, the sound was like thunder, crushing his lips against her’s with this newfound need. His hand cupped her face, and Devi pulled on his collar of those dumb shirts he still wears at College. She didn’t want to pull away, she craved him. She always had wanted this, since Malibu, he became a drug she couldn’t stop, and she tried, really, she did, but what doesn’t want the slight taste of mint and coffee and something that was so Ben. 

  
Ben pulled away, stroking her face with his large hands smiling at her. She was breathing so deeply and so was Ben, but she still wanted to kiss him again. Devi spoke first.

  
“Okay, I need a verbal confirmation, because I don’t know what just happened.” They both laughed, but it was true, she has only ever been kissed like that once before and that was so long ago, she need time to recover.

  
“Devi.” His hand pushed her chin, so she was looking at him. “God, I have loved you since we were 15 years old. When you kissed me in Malibu, I have always been yours.”

  
“O-kay, oh my god, I was so scared I fucked things up.” They both laughed again.

  
“So, what do you want from this? Because I happy waiting for it longer if you think that’s what you need-”

  
“No.” Devi had waited so long for Ben she wasn’t going to throw it away. “I want you. I need you, please.” She tugged on his collar again.

  
“Oh Devi, please, I’m not letting you go again. Never. Fuck just being friends.” Ben smiled against her lips.

With the Missing You, coming to end on his phone, she looked at him again and said it once again, because she thinks that she was never been sick of hearing it.

  
“I love you, Ben.”

  
_(this would be the best day of Devi’s life because they way Ben smiled_ now, _after the shock has overcome him, would be classed as luna, brilliant, stunning, heart-warming. It was one of the many things she loved about him)_

  
“I love you, Devi, more than you will ever know.”

**_fin_ **

**Author's Note:**

> kudos literally take one click, even for guests, so leave one!
> 
> comments make my day, i always reply!! <3


End file.
